Below is a portion of a post behind a parent-only section of the Bastrop ISD website. It was shared on a public FB group. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this post because I don’t have children in the district. But the portion I’ve read says to me the response of the district is completely inadequate.
UPDATE: I sent a copy of this blog post to the BISD Board of Trustees. I was assured by Superintendent Dr. Kristi Lee that “students who skip school for a protest or for any other reason are disciplined according to the Student Code of Conduct.” I thank Dr. Lee for her prompt response. I hope parents and students who support this walkout understand that there are consequences.
Bastrop ISD has nothing to crow about. Four schools with F ratings. Three schools with D ratings. Seven schools with C ratings, including 2 high schools. Only one school each with an A or B rating… both high schools. (2024-25 TEA ratings)
I do not pay taxes so children can leave school for a protest. I do pay a boatload of taxes to educate Bastrop children.
I attended high school in the late ’60s and college in the early ’70s. Think Vietnam. We did not walk out during school hours. Political protests? I’ve always taken a vacation day from work to do so on my time. And I’ve attended a lot of them.
Students: want to protest? Do so on your own dime, on your own time. Saturday? Sunday? Be my guest. But on my dime you should be in school, learning.
“It’s important to note that this walkout is not sanctioned or organized by our school or the District.” Great, but now that you know about it, stopping students from leaving school for this purpose is your job.
If you do nothing but tell parents they need to speak to their kids, but allow students to leave, you are abdicating your authority over taxpayer-funded assets and the trust parents put in you for the safety of their children. You are supporting mob behavior and peer pressure. You are risking students being injured off school grounds while they are supposed to be in school, opening BISD to lawsuits. You aren’t doing your job(s), pure and simple.
You need to make it clear to students that you are in charge, that taxpayers don’t give their hard-earned money to pay for protests, and that actions have consequences.
I hope the portion of this Parent Square post that is not included states that any student leaving regularly scheduled classes and/or district property for this purpose will be considered truant and the consequences for that behavior will be applied. Anything less is unacceptable.